I introduced the Scarbots a bit last time, and have since produced a couple more of them. I’ll save today’s for next time, but these two get to join their brethren to finish up Week One of Inktober 2021. I had a little more time on these, so I managed to finish up the inkwork. I do clean them up a bit before coloring them, so that’ll wait, but for now, that’s 7 new Scarbots in the sketchbook for the year!
Posts Tagged ‘steampunk’
Inktober 2021, The Scarbots, Week One
Posted in art, Game Design, tagged art, Game Design, Inktober, steampunk on October 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Inktober 2021, The Scarbots, Days 1-5
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged art, fiction, Game Design, ink, Inktober, pen, Scarbot, steampunk on October 6, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Inktober is an annual art project, intended to get people in the habit of drawing a bit with ink every day. I’ve never really had time to fully commit to such a thing, but I’ve been trying to do a bit of ink drawing each day this October. I’ve only “finished” one of these, and I suspect I’ll go back and do more with each of them at some point, like I did with this, the first Scarbot I ever produced (there’s another over on my Artstation page):

The Scarbots are a remnant of a forgotten war in an alternate Earth history’s northern Europe. They are part of the Project Khopesh storyline that I work on when I can make the time. They are expert scavengers, repairing themselves and each other as often as they need in the Northscar badlands. No two are the same, and though they are expert mechanics and very skilled in improvisation, they aren’t all that intelligent outside of their mission expertise and maintenance.
This new batch of Scarbots are certainly rougher, but these are the raw scans, straight from my sketchbook. I did some pencil work first, then inked in with a simple Uni-ball Onyx Micro ballpoint pen. If nothing else, I’ll have a new herd of Scarbots to play with at the end of the month. It will be fun to “flesh” these out, as it were, one of these days.
Thanks for stopping by, and we’ll see what else I can come up with!
Trouble on the Tracks: Tinker Bits IV
Posted in art, Game Design, Tinker, tagged games, Kickstarter, Meeples, steampunk, tabletop, Tinker, Trains on July 25, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Hello everyone!
Yes, it’s been far too long since I’ve posted here, but that’s just how life goes sometimes. This time, as last time, it’s to announce a new Kickstarter campaign we’re running, this time for some steampunk train-themed tabletop game bits.
Trouble on the Tracks: Tinker Bits IV
There are a bunch of photos of the prototypes over here, too:
Project Khopesh on Pinterest, Tinker Train Bits
Please spread the word! Promotional algorithms on social media sites aren’t kind to self-promotion, and many forums outright forbid it. It’s hobbling crowdfunding a bit, and we greatly appreciate any boosted signal that you can offer, even if you don’t want to jump into the project yourself.
Thank you all!
Tesh
…and yes, there are still some “Steam backlog” mini reviews in the pipeline, I just need to make time to polish things up a bit.
Steampunks and Scrapbooks
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged art, design, marketing, scrapbooking, steampunk, trends on November 22, 2014| 3 Comments »
I’ve been looking for full time work since this Tinker business I’ve been experimenting with just isn’t paying the bills. I applied to a graphic designer position with a scrapbooking company, and was politely informed that they cater to a “feminine” clientele and that my art isn’t what they are looking for.
OK, sure. I could have made some great products for them, but to each their own.
I have to wonder, though. With things like epbot.com, Forbes and IBM pegging steampunk as a Big Deal, and this sort of thing, with “steampunk” at least as important as “selfie” in dictionaries:
…it seems to me that steampunk design ethos, something I’m fairly familiar with these days, isn’t exactly “feminine”, but neither is it something below notice.
It’s not even strongly gendered in my experience, with steampunk fans quite happy to embrace things like Girl Genius or Hullabaloo not because of “token girls” but because of interesting and well crafted visuals and characters, some of whom happen to be female. To be sure, there are those who take the Victorian fashion and buttoned-up morality as a sort of challenge, trying to find ways to make it pornographic (which doesn’t intersect largely with scrapbook patrons… I think… but I’m not researching it), but that’s just what the Internet does. For the most part, what I’ve seen of the steampunk ethos and design is very inclusive and relatively nonjudgmental, which is part of the appeal of that “alternate history science fiction” sort of world where imagination is king.
I’m not a woman, but I’m married to a wonderful one, and she doesn’t see my steampunk work like the Tinker products and say “oh, that’s just so… masculine, ewwww”. She appreciates it for its curious blend of precision and ramshackle weirdness.
So, I have to wonder what sort of market there is out there for steampunk designs that can be used in scrapbooking. There’s certainly a “do it yourself” appeal to a lot of steampunk, which doesn’t necessarily lend itself well to prepackaged scrapbooking goods, and there’s always going to be those who heap disdain on any hint of the illiterate masses flirting with mainstream acceptance of their formerly fringe “geek safe zone” (see: “glue a gear on it“). Even so, I instinctively think that dismissing steampunk might be a bit premature, and to consider it beneath the notice of “feminine” clientele is perhaps shortsighted.
To be fair, this company didn’t complain about steampunk explicitly, I’m just ruminating on their feedback. I’m just not sure that “feminine” need equate to this sort of simple thing all the time.
What do you think?